More Rewinders

In the days since I invented, copyrighted and patented the word Rewinders, I've been noting other commercials that I like to watch over and over. What did I ever do before in those dark days before the DVR?

• Bank of America, "Online Banking." This would not be the kind of ad you'd suspect of being a Rewinder: basically a 60-second image ad presenting BoA as a leader in Internet banking services. But this is a smartly produced spot with a shockingly intelligent script: a rare case of great hi-lo marketing. Over some wonderfully nostalgic video of early online banking efforts (green characters on a black screen, the bitmapped desk interface from the old super-literal financial program Managing Your Money), a whip-smart banker named Kathy Claypool (she's actually senior VP of eCommerce) tells us, "You know, centuries ago there was barter, then coins, then paper money, then ATMs. Each we came to take for granted when they proved to be safe, secure and simple. Now there's online banking. And at BoA we're working to make us all take that for granted, too."

• Sprint Nextel, "Valve 347." Turning "The Simpsons" and a barrelful of related cliches on their head, this spot shows two competent engineers using walkie-talkie phones to nonchalant avert radioactive catastrophe while barely interrupting their heated discussion about sandwich nomenclature. The only discordant note about this ad is struck by another ad for DHL (below). It's one thing to have the same actor appear in different sponsors' commercials ... but wearing the same shirt?

• T-Mobile, "Nice Dress."  No, I'm not referring to that clingy number Catherine Zeta-Jones was wearing during the "SNL" monologue but this spot, easily the most addictive commercial on TV right now. It's cast, shot, and edited just perfectly, from the weary father who cares about nothing but his cell bill to his painfully out-of-step teenage son who still doesn't know forward gear from reverse, etc. etc. Brilliant.

• And then there's this one:
  
  This one isn't a Rewinder but rather a reminder ... of how despicable Fox reality TV can be when it tries really, really hard to be.